DAVY Fitzgerald says he knew he’d made the right decision to become Antrim’s new senior hurling manager after a fan sent his two-year-old son Daithí Og an Antrim jersey.
The highly decorated Clare native insisted he was “content” to take a year’s break from hurling after his shock departure from Waterford in July after just two seasons in charge – until he received a call from Antrim “out of the blue”.
“It’s just Antrim’s enthusiasm, their passion, their drive, it kind of resonated with what I’m about,” said the 53-year-old double All-Ireland winning goalkeeper.
“To me, it’s about having a good experience as well. I just had that feeling. That’s the ‘why’ for me. A lot of people talk about helping Antrim and how good they are up there – but talk is cheap, isn’t it?
“It’s now or never and I said let’s give it a shot. It took a bit of deliberation with my family because I have a two-and-a-half year old boy [Daithi Og] but we’re going to give it a go.”
After a difficult period as Waterford manager, Fitzgerald received some stinging criticism from fans and the experience second time around with the Decies soured somewhat.
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“There was a lot of apprehension on Sharon’s part [Davy’s wife],” Fitzgerald revealed.
“The experience she had in Wexford was off-the-charts good. Waterford would have been tougher because we lost a few league games by a point or two.
“In Waterford, you’ve to win every game even if you’ve eight or nine of your team not playing. You’re meant to win them all which is next to impossible, yet our Championship run was different.
“So, she probably never got the same experience in Waterford [as Wexford]. I said to Sharon that I really believe the people of Antrim are different.
“If you lose a game, they won’t be at your throat every two seconds; they’re not that kind of people. We talked about a lot of stuff.”
He added: “And, do you know what, somebody from Antrim sent Daithí Og a jersey. You’ve no idea the difference that makes. My wife said to me: ‘That’s a great feeling.’ That’s a big thing for me.”
Fitzgerald was Clare’s charismatic goalkeeper during the halcyon days of 1995 and ‘97 when the Banner County claimed the All-Ireland.
A keen student of the game since his teens, the Sixmilebridge clubman has been coaching since 1989.
He delivered provincial success with Waterford (2010) and Wexford (2019) and won the Liam MacCarthy with his native Clare in 2013.
“Would I love to see Antrim get a small taste of that? F***ing hell. One. Hundred. Per cent,” he said. “You can only imagine what that would be like. So that’s a big thing for me doing this.
“I just hope people respect me for making the effort and stay with me. This wasn’t an easy decision for me to do this and I’m not doing it for the sake of it.
“Like, I’ve my own businesses and I do okay. I’m doing this because I want to see if I can make a difference.
“Am I going to ask the Antrim players to go to places they haven’t gone before? Yeah. But they’ll get back a lot too, I can promise them that.”
Fitzgerald’s affinity with Antrim dates back to the mid-90s when his Sixmilebridge team was invited to the north by Dunloy, with the two clubs having contested the 1996 All-Ireland Club final.
He praised the work of Darren Gleeson who left Antrim after five years in charge – but insisted they would need to find greater consistency to make an impression on the national stage.
“If I just let them do what they’ve been doing, we’ll keep getting the same results, so I’ll have to change some things – and I won’t be copying any other team.”